


welcome to the family, Clear

by draagonfly



Series: Midorijima University [3]
Category: DRAMAtical Murder - All Media Types
Genre: Alcohol, Gen, mentions of alcoholism but nothing concrete, mentions of dried winter vegetables
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-12
Updated: 2015-07-12
Packaged: 2018-04-08 21:47:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4321950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/draagonfly/pseuds/draagonfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because what better way to bond with your future new roommates than over some sake and squash?<br/>Aka: the story of how Clear joined the dick squad.</p>
<p>Based on a true story, which is amazing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	welcome to the family, Clear

**Author's Note:**

> GINORMOUS THANK YOU TO [TRUEJAKU](http://archiveofourown.org/users/hereonourstreet/pseuds/truejaku) FOR THE AMAZING INSPIRATION!  
> Some people obviously experience life in a more exciting way than I do, but I least I can write about it.
> 
> I HIGHLY (emphasis on HIGHLY) recommend you read her [MizuNoiz fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1707251/chapters/3635117) because it is wonderful and heartbreaking and wonderful.  
> Also, the original story is in the notes of one of the chapters of her fic but I'm not going to tell you which so you have to go read it. (*^▽^*)

It was a normal Friday night, as far as Sly was concerned. Going to Black Needle to drink and hang out with the same people he hung out with every day at home anyway was normal. Aoba being late, and Koujaku nagging Noiz for something stupid, and Mink smoking silently, it was all normal. He had promised Aoba that he wouldn’t start drinking without him, and now he was late, again. Asshole. But Sly had expected that. Aoba was notorious for being late, and it was the one thing that their Granny had never hassled Sly about, which he supposed he could be grateful for. He wasn’t, but he could be.

He was seriously considering drinking anyway, when Aoba showed up arm in arm with a complete stranger. An attractive stranger, with white hair, pink eyes, and a bright yellow scarf that looked strangely good on him. Sly also noticed that he had two moles on his chin and that his skin was slightly discolored in some places. If anything it only added to his appeal though. For some reason he didn’t like that Aoba was so close to him, but he couldn’t pinpoint why. Probably just because Sly didn’t know him.

Aoba waved at them as they walked over, the stranger’s eyes shifting between them like a nervous cat.

“Everyone, this is Clear. Clear, this is Koujaku, Mink, Noiz, and my brother, Sly.” The new guy waved awkwardly and shuffled not-so-subtly behind Aoba. So he was shy. No wonder Aoba had befriended him. Koujaku smiled warmly and greeted him politely (‘It’s nice to meet you, Clear.’) while Mink just grunted in acknowledgement. Noiz scrutinized him a bit more, making the poor guy visibly tremble. Jesus, even _he_ wasn’t staring so much.

“Ignore him, he’s a dick to everyone. As Aoba said, I’m Sly, the fun twin.” Clear seemed to relax a little, and smiled appreciatively. Oh shit. Sly hadn’t meant to be actually friendly, just not as much of an asshole as Noiz. Luckily, Aoba saved him from the awkward exchange by addressing Clear again.

“Hey, Clear, do you want anything to drink? Mizuki’s treat.” He grinned and Clear’s eyes widened.

“Ah, that’s very nice of Mizuki-san, but I don’t mean to –“

“It’s fine!” Koujaku jumps in. “We all drink free here, so if you’re with us, you do too.”

“Yeah, and you’re gonna run me out of business someday.” Mizuki appears from somewhere behind Koujaku and smacks him in the arm. “But he’s right. Whatever you want, on the house. I just got a new brand of ginjo sake, if you wanna be my taste testers.”

“Hell yeah, bring it over.” Sly was immediately on board. He hated bitter alcohol – even though he drank it anyway – so the sweeter the alcohol, the less he suffered. Mizuki walked away to the bar, shaking his head.

“Careful Sly, or Clear’s going to think you’re an alcoholic.”

“Shut up, Aoba.”

“I-I don’t think that, Sly-san!” Clear seemed genuinely upset, and Sly didn’t know whether to be amused or annoyed. He settled for somewhere in the middle.

“Oi, oi, no one here is an alcoholic.” Koujaku, as always, jumped in to keep the peace. Mink huffed, and Sly glared at him.

“Hey, Clear.” Noiz spoke up for the first time since Clear arrived.

“Um, yes?” Clear looked at him nervously, seeming to shrink in on himself like he was afraid Noiz was going to attack him. To be fair, Noiz could be a bit intimidating if you weren’t used to him. Sly liked that about him; it was one of the reasons they got along so well.

“You remind me of a rabbit.”

“Um,” Clear looked confused. “Thank you, I guess?”

“Your hair looks fluffy. Like a rabbit.”

His explanation really did nothing to clear the confusion, so Sly jumped in to translate.

“It means he likes you. He’s a sucker for the stupid fluff-balls.” Clear mouth formed an ‘o’ in understanding and then his eyes lit up like it was the nicest compliment he had ever received. He clasped his hands together in excitement and turned to Noiz.

“Thank you very much, Noiz-san!”

 “Whatever.”

The conversation ended when Mizuki finally returned with the sake, and Sly immediately downed two cups. Maybe he did like drinking a bit too much, but he wasn’t too worried. They each had enough to get sufficiently tipsy, which meant everyone else had had about twice as much as he and Aoba. Sly hated being a lightweight.

Clear though seemed to be really enjoying himself, not that they all weren’t, but Sly got the impression he wasn’t used to drinking as much as the rest of them. Aoba cut him off at about the same time as he and Sly, and he couldn’t help but imagine Clear as Aoba’s kid. What a weird thought. It occurred to Sly that he didn’t actually know how old Clear was, but he supposed it didn’t really matter.

Speaking of old, Koujaku was in one of his more talkative moods, and was telling anyone who would listen about the pretty girl who’s hair he had cut the other day.

“It was so long and soft, it was a shame to cut it off, but who am I to turn away a customer? It was seriously beautiful though. Amazing. Almost as nice as Aoba’s.” Aoba’s face turned redder than it already was thanks to the sake, and Koujaku caught on a few seconds later to what he had just said. “I-I-I mean, um, what I meant was – “

“Shut up, old man, no one’s listening to your blabbering anyway.” Noiz jumped in at the worst, or best, moment, turning Koujaku’s attention to him.

“What was that, bean sprout? Learn to respect your elders.”

“I’m not a bean sprout, grandpa.”

“You –!”

Sly tuned out their arguing, because he had heard it so many times, and because he was trying to figure out why he felt a weird tug in his chest when Koujaku had complimented Aoba. Maybe he really did drink too much, and his heart was giving out on him. He was lost in his thoughts about heart transplants, and if maybe he could get a robotic one and live forever, when suddenly Clear spoke up, loud enough to be heard over Koujaku and Noiz’s yelling.

“Hey, hey, everyone. I, um,” Was he going to cry? No, but he looked pretty close. “I just wanted to say how much it means to me –“ He hiccupped in the middle of his sentence, but kept going anyway. “How much it means to me that you guys let me be here and drink and hang out with you, because no one’s really done that before and I –“ Another hiccup. “I’m really, really grateful. You are all such nice people, even Mink-san, even though he doesn’t really say anything, and Noiz-san, because he called me a bunny, and Koujaku-san because he’s really, really kind, and Mizuki-san because he gave us free sake, and Sly-san and Aoba-san, because they’re the best twins ever and –“

Clear kept going, but Sly sort of tuned him out, more interested in the faces of his friends. Mink and Noiz looked like they wanted to run and never come back, they were so uncomfortable with the praise coming out of this almost-stranger’s mouth. Mizuki had a look of pure amusement, as if he had seen this a hundred times – he probably had – but it never got old. He thought Koujaku might cry, which would be hilarious and Sly really hoped he did, and Aoba was trying so hard to keep from laughing he was noticeably shaking from the effort. Sly decided he really liked Clear. Clear finally stopped blubbering about how grateful and happy he was, only to reach into the pocket of his hoodie and pull out – a gourd?

He pulled a gourd, a dried and hollowed out gourd from his pocket. Was he carrying that around the whole time? Did those even grow on Midorijima? He guessed anything could be imported but still, a gourd? Everyone else was as shocked as Sly was, Koujaku no longer on the verge of tears, and Aoba’s laughter all but gone, but Clear paid them no mind as he picked up the bottle of sake and poured the remaining liquor inside the gourd. What the fuck was he doing?

“I want to pass around my sake gourd and have us all take a drink from it. I want us all to remember this night by taking a sip from this, the Friendship Gourd.” He spoke so matter-of-factly, like this was an absolutely normal thing to do, and Sly was speechless. Sly was never speechless. Clear took the first sip and passed it to Aoba who looked so out of place holding this gourd in the middle of Black Needle. Sly decided he loved Clear.

“What are you waiting for, Aoba? Drink!” Aoba looked at him incredulously, and then back down to the gourd in his hands. He took a sip and Clear and Sly both cheered. “My turn!”

Sly took the gourd from Aoba and took a long sip. He was surprised to find he didn’t taste any remnants of gourd at all, though he wasn’t exactly sure what gourd tasted like in the first place. He lowered it from his mouth and everyone cheered awkwardly, except for Clear who cheered enthusiastically. Sly beamed and passed the gourd to Koujaku, who must have resigned himself to his fate and drank. The gourd made it all the way around from Koujaku to Mizuki to Mink (who surprisingly cooperated) to Noiz and finally back to Clear.

“Ah, there’s still a little left.”

“I’ll drink it.” Sly reached forward and took the gourd back from Clear, draining the last few sips. When he lowered it and handed it back, Clear simply stuck it back into his pocket like nothing had even happened.

Koujaku was the first to start laughing, and it was an avalanche from there. Every one of them was doubled over in laughter, even Mink was smiling around his cigarette. Clear looked a little confused at first, but then Aoba wrapped an arm around his shoulders and he joined in the laughter as well. A few of the other patrons glared at them, but no one cared enough to actually do anything about it.

When they had finally calmed down, someone, Sly couldn’t remember who, suggested it was probably time to call it a night.

“Oh, do you live close by, Clear? It’s pretty late, and this area can get dangerous if you don’t know where you’re going.” Aoba’s questioning look quickly morphed into concern at the expression on Clear’s face. “Clear? What’s wrong? I didn’t mean to scare you or anything! Someone can walk you home, if you want.”

“O-oh no, it’s fine! I can manage. I live, um, over, around –“ Clear was either far more drunk than they had realized, or…

“Are you homeless?” Those were the first words Mink had spoken all night, and Sly could see tears welling in Clear’s eyes.

“No! No, I, I have somewhere to sleep, it’s…” The intensity of Mink’s stare must have scared him into silence. Sly knew what that was like.

“Come with us. We have plenty of room.” And with that Mink turned and walked toward the door, not looking back even once.

“B-but…”

“Come on, Clear.” Aoba smiled as only Aoba can. “You can meet Ren! He’s our dog. Well, more like the house dog, but technically he’s mine and Sly’s. He’s really friendly and fluffy, you’ll love him.” Aoba wrapped an arm around Clear for the second time that night, and Sly felt that tug again. Weird. Maybe he should go to the hospital.

Having no room to argue, Clear could only smile gratefully and allow himself to be led to their home.

When he was still there two weeks later, mostly because none of them would let him go back to being homeless, he asked if he could rent out the spare bedroom. No one had a problem with it of course, but for some reason, it seemed that Mink was the ultimate authority on all things Clear. He was the one Clear ultimately had to convince, though it was pretty easy seeing as how Mink apparently had a soft spot for pink eyed, white haired boys (which Sly found extremely interesting). And so Clear became the unofficial sixth member of their household.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: They have the gourd displayed in the living room.
> 
> I wrote, edited, and posted this in the span of about 4 hours so I'm sorry for any mistakes and also that the ending is so disappointing.  
> I kinda wanna do one of these for each of them.... oh boy


End file.
